Jim obtained his BSc (1986) and PhD (1990) degrees from University College Dublin. He spent 5 years at the Australian National University before being appointed as a lecturer at the University of Western Australia in 1995. He has been actively involved in teaching and research and was appointed Chair of Biochemistry in 2004, which he held until he became Interim Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Plant Energy Biology in 2005. In 2014 he was appointed at the Co-director of AgriBio, the Centre for AgriBioscience at La Trobe University and Director of the Research Focused Area of Securing Food Water and the Environment. In 2018 he led the academic and industry team that applied for and were successful in obtaininf an ARC Industrial Transformation Resrach Hub was subsequently too up the position of Research Director for the Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Hub in Medicinal Agriculture. In 2021 he obtained $11M from the Victorian government to expand advanced plant phenotyping facilities for susutainable agiculture based on his establishment of plant phenotyping at La Trobe University and collaborations with industry partners Photon Systems Instruments (Czech Republic) and SPEXAI (Germnay).

Jim has made outstanding contributions to research and research training. He is a world leading expert in mitochondrial biology in plants, from biogenesis to function, mitochondrial signalling and the role of mitochondria in plant growth, development and stress resistance. He is an expert in phosphate nutrition in plants and leads efforts to develop crop plants that are less reliant on phosphate fertilizers, benefiting both producers and the environment. 

Over his career, Jim has secured more than $90 million in competitive research grant funding, published more than 270 journal articles with a h-index of 95 (Google Scholar) and has supervised and graduated 38 PhD students.  Many of his PhD students have gone on to receive a number of prestigious international fellowships including Human Frontiers, EMBO and von Humboldt awards to carry out further studies, and now hold Professorial appointments at a variety of institutions.

During his career he has received numerous awards and recognition. In 2016 he was named as a Thompson Reuters Highly Cited Author in Animal and Plant Science, placing him in the top 1% of cited authors in animal and plant biology. In 2009 and 2015 he was listed by the American Society of Plant Biology as one of the top 50 cited authors in the world in Plant Biology. In 2008 was awarded an honorary doctorate from Stockholm University for his continuing contributions to research and education. In May 2019 he was elected as a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. He has been awarded a number of prestigious international fellowships and prizes; OECD Fellowship (1989), Werner-Gren Fellowship (1993 and 1996), the Peter Goldacre Medal by the Australian Society of Plant Scientists (1998), Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship (2001). In 2015 he was awarded the Westlake Friendship award by the Zhejiang provincial government in China for his collaborations in teaching and research in China.

We are seeking applicants for a postdoctoral fellow position in our laboratory.

Laboratory Introduction：

player.bilibili.com/player.html?aid=645815258&bvid=BV1YY4y1N726&cid=840316525&page=1

Advancing Digital Agriculture：

player.bilibili.com/player.html?aid=985782225&bvid=BV1Dt4y1A7np&cid=840311809&page=1